[center][h2]Lalrial, The Heartlands[/h2]
Lalaifia, the 6th of Gerna 1200 AU – 06.03.1200[/center]

First it had been by sea and then by horse from the docks as the Vialiph of the Argentum came to the capital. There was much that needed to be done, mistakes had been made and there was an Emperor to elect, his vote would be needed. Sometimes the others were too zealous, sometimes they did not see enough of the big picture. And it was a pair of short sighted inquisitor generals that awaited him when he arrived.

His horse pulled up into the stable of the Argentum's Silver-Gold tower in Lalrial and an attendant rushed to take the reins from him. The pair of supervising Inquisitor Generals were waiting for his arrival in their silver and gold formal robes.

With a swift, fluid motion he lept down from the back of his faithful steed and landed before them. And his strangely beautiful, for there was no other word for a Vaelie pureblood, face was twisted with indignation.

“You have overstepped our bounds.”

“My lord Vaeliph, it was thy decree that we begin to move on the Swiftwave” the female inquisitor began, her musical voice stuttering slightly.

“I ordered you to obvserve and build a case for the new Emperor. We look like opportunists now. We have a chance to finally immolate them and you just bestowed the sympathy of half the empire on heretics who spread their insidious cancer!” It was discordant and wrathful, scathing and powerful. The other vaelie felt it too, and they shuddered.

“We apologize lord Vaeliph, we acted without thought.”

“Yes, you did and now we have to clean this up. How badly did you injure them? And did you even find a heretic for all this trouble?” His words were demanding and powerful and his silver hand grabbed one of the inquisitors by the robes and pulled him over. 

“The man broke under consumption, the woman is physically unharmed. We did get a confession, the Viceroy himself is” 

The Vialiph's golden eyes widened as his expression darkned even more, dangerously so. “You performed consumption on high nobility? You are stripped of your authority and demoted to initiates. But first. You will fetch me one of the Tallurians, we can't fix consumption, they can. I will have to wipe the Swiftwaves and it will be messy at best. Now go!”

The two inquisitors fled the room as if their gods themselves had appeared and declared them heretics. The Vialiph raised a flawless silver hand to his head just as a servant ran up bearing a message. 

One quick perusal brought the building headache to a peak and with a loud sigh the vaelie folded up the paper and slipped it into a pocket. His cousin had found yet another [i]heretic[/i]. Probably another lover who had jilted her… Vae'lesi did not know when to stop. But he would have to deal with this and quickly. They could not afford another incident before the new Emperor was chosen. And he still had to do damage control. It was probably an opening lost for another generation but for now risking the order was foolish, even if a sacred immolation was called for.

He would need to personally release the prisoners with his apologies and their memories fogged, if he did, it might be enough to keep the nightmare spiral from beginning.